Biographies & Memoirs
154 Articles & Excerpts
How Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer Reinvented Their Company
 Microsoft Rebooted
by Robert Slater
I have been thinking about writing a book on Bill Gates and Microsoft for a very long time. As part of the research I conducted for Portraits in Silicon (MIT Press, 1987), a book about computer pioneers and developers.
Part 3
 Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Bewitched the West
by Lesley Downer
It was a struggle to tame such a wild and willful little girl. But Kamekichi had high ambitions for her. She sent her off to teachers to learn the skills that would make her a star geisha without quenching her spark and spirit.
Part 2
Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Bewitched the West
by Lesley Downer
Young Japanese steamed off on P & O liners to Europe and America to study and foreign experts came to teach-British engineers to share the secrets of the industrial revolution; French to explain their system of law and military affairs
The Geisha and the Farm Boy
Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Bewitched the West
by Lesley Downer
One fine autumn evening in 1885 a young man was strolling along the banks of the River Sumida in Tokyo. It was a beautiful place thick with grasses and wildflowers, lined with cherry and willow trees.
First, Put Yourself in the Game
 It's All Lies and That's the Truth
by Bernie Brillstein
Now that we're getting to the end of this preamble, I want to make sure I've been absolutely clear about one thing: The Little Stuff Matters Most is not a book of secrets.
Childhood, Part 3
 'Shakespeare' by Another Name
by Mark Anderson
The year 1558 marked two major events in Edward de Vere's life: He began his brief university career, and his queen came to the throne. The two were probably connected. As a Protestant and a former Secretary of State, Smith expected that he would hold
Childhood, Part 2
'Shakespeare' by Another Name
by Mark Anderson
In the winter of 1552-53, King Edward VI fell ill with what doctors now think was a virulent strain of pneumonia. On July 6, 1553, the prophecies of a long and illustrious Edwardian Age did not come to pass. The sixteen-year-old monarch had died.
The Eye of Childhood
'Shakespeare' by Another Name
by Mark Anderson
On april 12, 1550, in the private apartments of a british stone-walled medieval fortress, a lord and lady welcomed their heir into the world. If the boy survived, the child's father John de Vere, sixteenth earl of Oxford could henceforth rest assured
The Life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, the Man Who Was Shakespeare
'Shakespeare' by Another Name
by Mark Anderson
Every author's life tells a story. According to the conventional biography, William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564; he moved to London sometime in the late 1580s or early 1590s and soon enjoyed great success as an actor
A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart
 The Tao of Willie
by Willie Nelson, Turk Pipkin
This book is my way of sharing a little of what I've learned in seventy-two years of making music and friends on this beautiful planet. I don't know if the things I write here will change your life, but they sure changed mine.
Mother Antonia's Journey from Beverly Hills to a Life of Service in a Mexican Jail
 The Prison Angel
by Mary Jordan, Kevin Sullivan
In early 2002, we asked a young woman on Islas Marías, a prison in the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles off the Mexican coast, how she liked being an inmate there. She bubbled on about the beautiful ocean setting and the fresh air
A Memoir of My Years in the White House, Part 2
 Ronald Reagan in Private
by Jim Kuhn
At Chateau Fleur d'Eau, I was uneasy as Gorbachev's motorcade got closer and closer and Reagan donned his blue cashmere coat and white scarf. So much rode on this first encounter. Why did the president need to wear a coat?
A Memoir of My Years in the White House
Ronald Reagan in Private
by Jim Kuhn
No one said much as we stood behind the glass front doors in the atrium of Chateau Fleur d'Eau, an imposing lakeside chateau in Geneva, Switzerland, on that overcast, chilly November morning in 1985. The president seemed calm, but preoccupied.
A Conversation Between Khaled Hosseini and Firoozeh Dumas
 Funny in Farsi
by Firoozeh Dumas
I first met Khaled at a fundraiser for the Berkeley public libraries in January 2004. Both of our books had been published fairly recently, but I had not yet read The Kite Runner. I did, however, remember his name.
Growing Up Iranian in America
Funny in Farsi
by Firoozeh Dumas
When I was seven, my parents, my fourteen-year-old brother, Farshid, and I moved from Abadan, Iran, to Whittier, California. Farid, the older of my two brothers, had been sent to Philadelphia the year before to attend high school.
Introduction
 Morrie: In His Own Words
by Morrie Schwartz
His name: Morris Schwartz. 'But call me Morrie,' he insisted, even to Ted Koppel, who obliged on three Nightline specials in 1995, half-hour interviews which helped make this wise old man a national icon.
A love story. Yes: this is a love story
 Drinking: A Love Story
by Caroline Knapp
It's about passion, sensual pleasure, deep pulls, lust, fears, yearning hungers. It's about needs so strong they're crippling. It's about saying good-bye to something you can't fathom living without. I loved the way drink made me feel
A Memoir of Life in Death
 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly : A Memoir of Life in Death (Vintage International)
by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Through the frayed curtain at my window, a wan glow announces the break of day. My heels hurt, my head weighs a ton, and something like a giant invisible cocoon holds my whole body prisoner. My room emerges slowly from the gloom.
Chapter One, Part 2
 Stuart
by Alexander Masters
In order to keep track of his newly busy life, Stuart has devised a special colour-coding for this book: green highlighter for family, yellow for social, orange for duty. His handwriting is not excellent.
Chapter One
Stuart
by Alexander Masters
'It was cutting me throat what got me this flat.' Stuart pushes open the second reinforced door into his corridor, turns off the blasting intercom that honks like a foghorn whenever a visitor presses his front bell, and bumps into his kitchen to sniff
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